Fedora 16 And GNOME Shell: Tested And Reviewed

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Ubuntu and Mint don't want it; Linus called it an “unholy mess.” While most other distros are passing up or postponing GNOME Shell, Fedora is full steam ahead. Does Red Hat know something the rest of us don't? Or is GNOME 3 really as bad as everyone says?

Benchmark Analysis: Fedora Versus Ubuntu And Windows

The following placing table groups the benchmarks into categories and lists the first-, second-, and third-place finisher of each test.

Swipe to scroll horizontally
BenchmarkFirst PlaceSecond PlaceThird Place
Start And Stop Times
BootUbuntu 11.10Windows 7Fedora 16
Shut DownFedora 16Windows 7Ubuntu 11.10
HibernateFedora 16Ubuntu 11.10Windows 7
WakeWindows 7Ubuntu 11.10Fedora 16
File Copy Times
HDD to HDDFedora 16Ubuntu 11.10Windows 7
HDD to USBWindows 7Ubuntu 11.10Fedora 16
USB to HDDUbuntu 11.10Windows 7Fedora 16
Archiving
ZipWindows 7Fedora 16Ubuntu 11.10
Un-ZipWindows 7Ubuntu 11.10Fedora 16
Tar.gzUbuntu 11.10Fedora 16Windows 7
Un-Tar.gzFedora 16Ubuntu 11.10Windows 7
Multimedia
Video Transcoding (HandBrake)Fedora 16Ubuntu 11.10Windows 7
Audio Encoding (Lame)Fedora 16 & Ubuntu 11.10Windows 7Row 16 - Cell 3
Image Processing (RawTherapee)Ubuntu 11.10Fedora 16Windows 7
System
CPU & Memory (Geekbench)Ubuntu 11.10Fedora 16Windows 7
CPU: Single-Threaded (POV-Ray)Windows 7Ubuntu 11.10Fedora 16
CPU: Multi-threaded (Blender)Fedora 16Ubuntu 11.10Windows 7
Gaming
AMDUbuntu 11.10Fedora 16Windows 7
NvidiaFedora 16Windows 7Ubuntu 11.10

Results

Fedora takes first place in eight out of 19 tests, while Ubuntu wins seven and Windows wins five. Ubuntu 11.10 has the most second-place finishes with nine, followed by Fedora 16 and Windows 7, with five each. Windows falls to last place most often (nine out of nineteen), followed by Fedora with six third-place finishes and Ubuntu with just three.

Analysis

While Fedora 16 shows more wins than Ubuntu 11.10, many of those are practical ties. Therefore Ubuntu 11.10 remains the king of cross-platform performance. However, as with any cross-platform comparison, this relies on the lowest common denominator of what's available for the operating system with the fewest available applications. So, while both Linux distros beat the performance of Windows 7 in our testing, the ages of our games speak volumes about the real state of affairs. Linux has serious potential as a gaming platform, but a shortage of developer support keeps the energy from becoming kinetic.